Proposals floating for Tiger Stadium site

Details are emerging on a mixed-use development to be built on the site of the old Tiger Stadium, featuring the headquarters for two nonprofit organizations and a $20 million charter school.

To be clear, nothing is official yet. Proposals were given to the city on Nov. 1 with no decisions made yet.

Here's what I know:

The WARM Training Center and the Greening of Detroit are both looking at options to create a joint headquarters building, and possibly some kind of new development.

While a site has not been selected, WARM Training executive director Bob Chapman said that the groups are considering the Tiger Stadium site among others.

Also in the works is a possible charter school on that site. In an interview with WDET Monday, the head of charter schools for Cornerstone Schools, Bob Sommers confirmed that his group is looking at the site as well.

Planned is a K-8 school with room to teach 500 kids. The fate of the $20 million school is with the city of Detroit, which controls the site.

Sommers also notes that "the building would implement various energy-saving green technologies," according to a story posted on the radio stations website. He also said it would include an office complex as well as retail and residential uses and added that the ball field will be intact.

Sommers is on vacation and couldn't be reached for comment today, but something else he said lends credibility to the idea that this will include the WARM and Greening offices.

In an e-mail, he said that WARM and Greening are still looking at sites and will likely make a decision in six months. But, he also said the building would "model best practices as far as both the built and natural environment (be super energy efficient, environmentally healthy for users and the neighborhood, etc)."

Now, it's entirely possible that the school and office projects are competing for the site, Chapman did not want to give a lot of details because the project is so early in the planning stages.

It's also possible that neither will get funded, as most developers continue to gripe about how hard it is to get financing.

In a statement, the Detroit Economic Growth Authority confirmed only that there have been "some proposals" received by the Nov. 1 deadline for proposals on the site. A selection committee is supposed to notify the finalists December 1.

A joint office and school project on that site would be a great anchor for future Corktown development. We'll see where this goes.